Obama is after bin Laden. No other single action would pay such huge dividends. In this, Obama proves himself again to be, not just the politician as chess master, but the politician as martial artist, always seeking for the fulcrum, the pivot point where four ounces of effort will yield a thousand pounds of result.

It is a very high level skill, far higher and more effective than the brute force men like Cheney, Bush, or Rumsfeld rely on, and it’s difficult to attain, because it depends on three subsidiary skills that lesser men simply never recognize, much less master: listening, understanding and neutralizing…. What appears to some to be hesitation or lack of engagement on his part early on in any effort is really just preparation.

[To the tune of Audioslave, “Jewel Of The Summertime,” from the album Revelations (I give it 3 stars).]